On Mars, Life Could Be Hiding Under The Stones

On Earth, some strong organisms utilize certain minerals as a natural “sunscreen” to shield them from bright radiation — may Mars microorganisms utilize a similar methodology?

Living on Mars would be extreme by any measure — so intense, that there’s impressive open deliberation about whether even the hardiest of organisms could survive. The atmosphere is thin, the surface is heated with radiation and the planet itself is for the most part bone-dry, dusty and wind-cleared.

In any case, there could be niches where life flourished in the removed past, when Mars had a thicker environment and a wetter surface. So when Red Planet researcher Janice Bishop was welcome to take a gander at carbonate shakes in the Mojave Desert a couple of years prior, she promptly observed ramifications for Mars.

Diocesan had officially distributed a 2006 International Journal of Astrobiology paper calling iron oxides a “bright sunscreen” for antiquated photosynthesis on Earth. The consequence of the more up to date examine, distributed in 2011 in a similar diary demonstrated that the Mojave rocks gathered likewise had press oxide coatings, under which carbonates were covering up.